REVIEW: Unibet Darts Premier League

The 2018 Darts Premier League kicked off in Dublin this month, as four players made their Premier League debut in the 10-man event to try and reach May’s final in London. Adam Keiller takes a look back at the biggest stories from the opening round.

Mensur Suljovic 5-7 Simon Whitlock

The first match of the season certainly didn’t disappoint as Simon ‘The Wizard’ Whitlock comes back from 3-1 down to win 5-7 and take maximum points. The debutant Suljovic missed the chance to go 4-1 up after missing a throw at Bullseye and take control of the game. This fuelled Whitlock to begin his comeback as he won the next four legs, taking out a 160 checkout in the process. The Wizard finished the match with Tops (double 20) for the win. A promising debut for Suljovic, but the returning Aussie was more clinical hitting the doubles with a success rate of 88%.

Gary Anderson 5-7 Michael Smith

Michael ‘Bully Boy’ Smith looked down and out after being 5-1 down in 12 minutes. But Anderson gave Smith way back into the match after missing eight darts at double one in the fourth leg to securing himself at least a draw. Smith didn’t look back after this as he won the next six legs to take the points on the opening week. Smith will look to improve on his last Premier League performance as he finished 10th in 2016. Anderson has been struggling with a back injury in recent weeks and this was clearly nagging him throughout the game.

Raymond van Barneveld 6-6 Daryl Gurney

Daryl Gurney takes a point on his Premier League debut as he draws to 5-time world championship Raymond van Barneveld. Gurney took a 0-2 lead before Barneveld hit back with three straight legs to take a 3-2 lead, Gurney then won the next three legs to put himself one away from victory, but he couldn’t see out the game. Barneveld won the final three sets of the match to earn himself a point on the opening week. Barneveld will hope to add to his nine-previous top four league finishes with number 10 this season. He’ll have to play better, however, to do that.

Michael van Gerwan 7-2 Rob Cross

This rematch of the 2018 world championship semi-final wasn’t as close as the original, MVG saw to that with a comprehensive 7-2 win over the current world champion Rob Cross. MVG had not forgotten the semi-final defeat five weeks ago as he looked razor focused tonight and made quick work of the Premier league debutant. Van Gerwan hit an impressive three 114 checkouts on his way to victory. This win puts MVG top of the Premier League table as he hunts down a third league title. Cross should not be to disheartened by tonight’s defeat as MVG was on the top of his game tonight.

Peter Wright 6-6 Gerwyn Price

Peter Wright lets a 5-1 lead slip as he eventually drew 6-6 to Premier League debutant Gerwyn Price in the night’s final match. Price had a poor start to the game after several doubles and next thing he knew he was 5-1 down. Price then picked up his game and started to turn things around by winning five of the last six legs to secure a point from what looked like a dire situation. Wright had won eight of the last nine meetings between these two, but he couldn’t make it nine wins from 10, when he probably should have.

Sport

Tweet Evgeni Vakov and Zuzanna Marciniak bring you all the action from day eight of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Great Britain’s Lizzy Yarnolds became the first ever women to defend her Olympic skeleton title after edging out German Jacqueline Loelling by 0.45 seconds. Bronze went to another Britt Laura Deas who was just 0.17 seconds out of the silver medal. Yarnolds was second before the fourth runs 0.02 behind Austria’s Janine Flock but a new track record in the final run allowed her to retain her gold medal….

Tweet Evgeni Vakov and Zuzanna Marciniak bring you all the action from day seven of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Dom Parsons won Britain’s first medal of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games taking bronze in the men’s skeleton. If you have just woken up 🌅 we’re pleased to say that @domparsons has secured Team GB’s first medal with 🥉 in the skeleton! Make sure you check out the highlights on @BBCSport or @Eurosport_UK #WeAreTheGreat 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/FTeXFHnACB — Team GB (@TeamGB) February 16, 2018 The race however was all…

Tweet Evgeni Vakov and Zuzanna Marciniak bring you all the action from day six of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Norway finally won their first men’s downhill gold medal thanks to 35-years-old veteran Aksel Lund Svindal, who also is now the oldest Olympic alpine gold medallist Svindal edged compatriot Kjetil Jansrud by 0.12 seconds while current world champion Beat Feuz from Switzerland finished a further 0.06 behind. Sochi winner Matthias Mayer from Austria did not manage to repeat his performance from four years ago and finished in ninth place….

Culture

Tweet It’s that time of year again where people have made their New Year’s resolutions and are now waiting for all the best festival line-ups to be announced; we have some great news… Spring Break Amsterdam Festival have released their incredible 2018 line-up for the three-day metro-festival. The acts revealed include Chase & Status (DJ set), Shy FX, Wiley, General Levy, Big Narstie and High Contrast, plus many more. The festival takes place on Sunday 8th, Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th April and tickets are already selling extremely fast. The…

Tweet It’s almost Christmas and a spontaneous trip lends you 24 hours to explore Munich, the capital of Bavaria, so what does one do? If you are anything like me, you get on the old interweb and do a spot of investigating as you pass the journey to Gatwick at ridiculous o’clock in the morning. Recent news stories have lowered Tripadvisor in your estimation, so you delve a little further. Travel and food writers are my ubiquitous go-to. I want to see the sights and get a flavour of München in…

Tweet Many vegans and activists for the cause have been likened to that of extremist cults, but this is not the case at all. As a student recently starting my course and living in Eastbourne, I was astounded by how alien the lifestyle of residents here appears to that of Brighton. Neighbour to one of the most vegan friendly recognised cities in the UK, Eastbourne seems to have so little acknowledgement for the dietary movement and the benefits it evokes. This lack of awareness stirred up confusion in my mind and…

Following the recent release of their album, Our Pleasure, the no-frills-attached notorious Canadian four-piece punk rock band Single Mothers hit the Green Door Store in Brighton on November 15 as part of their UK/Europe tour.